Sunday, December 2, 2007

NEW YORK: Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal has been ranked third in Forbes magazine's 20 self-made Asian billionaires list, which has five other Indians - Unitech's Ramesh Chandra, Suzlon's Tulsi Tanti, Gautam Adani, G M Rao and Uday Kotak. In the latest list of 20, Sunil Mittal has grabbed the third place with a net worth of 12.5 billion dollars while Ramesh Chandra is at the fourth (rpt) fourth place with an estimated worth of 11.6 billion dollars. Tulsi Tanti of Suzlon Energy holds the fifth position, while Adani Group's Guatam Adani is ranked 10th, G M Rao of GMR Infrastructure 13th and Uday Kotak of Kotak Group 20th.The top two positions have been cornered by two billionaires from Hong Kong -- Li Ka-shing (23 billion dollars) and Lee Shau Kee (17 billion dollars). Hong Kong is represented by five people, while China and Malaysia have two each. According to the US business magazine, Sunil Mittal began his first business in 1976 with "1,500 dollars borrowed from his father. Later, co-founded Bharti Group with two brothers.Now, their Bharti Airtel is nation's largest mobile phone operator, with more than 50 million customers." Sixty-eight-year-old Ramesh Chandra studied structural engineering in the UK before moving into real estate business. The publicly-listed Unitech, run by his two sons, is currently expanding into developing theme parks and shopping malls. Tulsi Tanti and family estimated to be worth 10 billion dollars is described as a former textile trader who turned to alternative energy when rising power costs threatened to put him out of business.